And he’s got himself a sweet hover-car hot rod to do it in! This present-laden ride is the work of Sylon-tw who’s giving Saint Nick’s reindeer the night off. Send Santa your list via the link above!
Santa Claus is Coming to Town!
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Virtually Real
The new LEGO Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender set may be getting all the attention right now, but it has us yearning for a proper Land Rover. This is one such vehicle, from back before the Defender was called the Defender. It is in fact simply known as the Land Rover Series 2A, and is shown here in 109 pick-up form courtesy of John O’Shea of Flickr.
John’s Land Rover Series 2A might be digital, but it’s also absolutely gorgeous, and very probably the most accurate Lego Land Rover design we’ve seen yet. He’s even built an ultra rare Cuthbertson tracked variant, sold in the ’60s by a Scottish engineering firm to allow the Land Rover go even further off-road. Head into the unknown (virtually) at John’s Land Rover Series 2A album via the link above.
White Good
White, cheap, and made of plastic. ‘Qualities’ shared by both this Lego model of a Traband 601S and, er… an actual Trabant 601S. The Trabant’s plasticky bodywork was actually produced from material derived out of recycled cotton, which meant it didn’t rust and was readily available in an economy where metal was precious, and – perhaps surprisingly – it was also quite an advanced car when it launched.
However four decades of zero development due to its monopoly in the East German market (thanks communism) meant that the Trabant quickly became a symbol of everything that was wrong with the other side of the iron curtain.
Fortunately once the wall fell East Germans rushed a) into West Germany, and b) into cars that weren’t a Trabant. Still, it was a vehicle that mobilised a nation, and it is therefore one of the most important car designs in history. Flickr’s Dornbi has paid tribute to the little East German oddity with his lovely Creator/Model Team version, complete with opening doors, raising hood, and an interior resplendent in ‘medium nougat’. See more on Flickr via the link above.
Black Friday | Nothing to See Here
It’s Black Friday! That magical time of the year when here at The Lego Car Blog we do absolutely nothing to take advantage of slightly lower prices. If you feel like accompanying us in resolutely not joining the zombie hoards rampaging through Walmart then we have some awesome alternatives for you!
Firstly Creations for Charity, where brilliant creations and bespoke mini-figures are available to buy with all proceeds used to fund the purchase of LEGO toys for underprivileged children. You can check out what’s available at the Creations for Charity Bricklink store here, where the items for sale won’t have a 30% discount, but buying one will do a whole lot of good in the world.
You may also want to check our Christian Aid, Oxfam, The Red Cross and Tearfund, who are awesome every day of every year fighting poverty right around the world.
Finally just by being here you’re doing a little bit of good too, as all the proceeds from the limited adverts that appear on this site are given away to those who need them more than we do, including the charities above, local churches, and disaster relief agencies.
Thank you for your your clicks; we are so grateful that you’ve chosen to use them here : )
TLCB Team
Iveco for Idle Thumbs
LEGO’s excellent Power Functions motors are found in a pretty much every Technic creation that this site features these days. There’s nothing wrong that of course, they add great play value and the Elves can use creations equipped with them to run one another over.
However we do still like good old-fashioned mechanical functions, and not just because it means we don’t have to clean TLCB Towers of squashed Elves.
This is Thirdwigg‘s Iveco skip truck, a neat mid-size Technic creation packed with working functions, all of which are powered by the human finger. Working steering, a piston engine under the tilting cab, rear stabilising legs, and a linear actuator operated skip hoist are all present, and you can see more on Flickr via the link above.
Bugatti Centodieci | Picture Special
This is the Bugatti Centodieci, a nine million dollar hypercar based on the Chiron, with a planned production of just ten units. Bet those Chiron owners aren’t feeling quite as special anymore…
No matter, because car-building legend Firas Abu-Jaber has done his bit to make the Centodieci a little bit less exclusive by upping their number by 10%; this is his astonishingly accurate Model Team recreation of Bugatti’s rarest (and most expensive) modern car.
Built in 1:16 scale Firas’ Bugatti Centodieci includes a beautifully detailed interior behind some gloriously clever hinged doors (although as the public haven’t yet seen how the real car’s doors open they are admittedly a bit of a guess), and a replica of the quad-turbo W16 engine below the opening engine cover.
There are plenty more images of Firas’ incredible creation to see at his Bugatti Centodieci album on Flickr, and you can read his interview here at TLCB as part of the Master MOCers series by clicking here.
76896 Speed Champions Nissan GT-R NISMO | Set Preview
It’s 2020 Speed Champions reveal time! Uncovered by one of our elite Elves thrown over The LEGO Company HQ’s wall a few weeks back, this is the brand new 76896 Speed Champions Nissan GT-R NISMO!
Slotting in between the previously revealed 76895 Ferrari F8 Tributo and excellent 76897 Audi Sport quattro, 76896 brings another real-world manufacturer into the Speed Champions line-up. The new Nissan GT-R NISMO joins the range in LEGO’s new 8-wide style that has become uniform across the latest Speed Champions sets, allowing them to look (mostly) to scale side-by-side as well as being able to fit two mini-figures.
Aimed at ages 7+ 76896 includes 298 pieces, a mini-figure racing driver, and a lot of stickers, forming the racing livery, front grille, air intakes and even the headlights.
It’s not really a look to our tastes, as we much prefer the brick-built rear to the be-stickered front, but we suspect that if you’re seven you won’t mind at all (when you’re seven stickers are awesome).
We also suspect that the new 76896 Nissan GT-R NISMO will fly off the shelves, with the GT-R being one of the poster cars for the Forza generation and also becoming the first Japanese car to be recreated as an official LEGO set.
We hope that the new Nissan GT-R’s arrival heralds the possibility of further Japanese manufacturers deciding to partner with LEGO (Toyota Supra, Lexus LFA or Honda NSX anyone?), but even if not – and although this particular Speed Champions set is a bit stickery for us – the arrival of another real-world manufacturer is something to be celebrated, particularly with a car as legendary as the Nissan GT-R
The new 76896 Speed Champions Nissan GT-R NISMO set is expected to cost around $20 and is due to reach stores by the end of the year.
Swooooosh! (Again)
Crap. Another spaceship. We’re no good at this. No matter, because whilst we have literally no idea what Scott Wilhelm‘s ‘Hypernova VVV’ is or what it’s for, we can say that it looks most excellent, complete with a front end that looks a bit like a cross between a Ferrari F430 and the magnificent Eagle Weslake Formula 1 car. Head into space via the link above if you like what you see.
Volvo FMX & Palfinger PK78002 | Picture Special
This is a Volvo FMX with Palfinger PK78002 SH crane, which is a very long nome. But then it is a very impressive model. Taking builder Dirk Klijn four years to complete, this FMX takes Lego model making to the extreme, with a level of detail and functional realism that is second to none.
Controlled by three third-party SBricks, Dirk’s creation includes Power Functions motors, pneumatics, custom LED lighting and some off-the-charts engineering brilliance.
Firstly the truck is of course remote controlled, with steering on the front axles and drive at the rear. All are suspended, as is the cab, which also tilts to reveal a highly detailed engine underneath.
Stowed compactly between the cab and the flatbed is the Palfinger crane. A trio of Technic pneumatic cylinder unfurl it beautifully, with air pressure provided by an on-board motorised compressor. Further Power Functions motors allow it to rotate, extend and winch, to pluck the assortment of buildery equipment from the truck and lower it to the ground.
Four motorised outriggers keep the truck stable when the crane is in operation, whirring outwards in unison via remote control. It’s a seriously impressive build, and one that certainly goes to the top of the creations featured here in 2019.
There’s much more to see of Dirk’s amazing remote controlled Volvo FMX with Palfinger PK78002 at his Flickr album by clicking here, where you can also find a link to watch a video showing this magnificent model in action.
Swooooosh!
NoVVember* continues apace, which is a good thing for us as it means December is nearly here and we don’t think it has a building challenge. This Vic Viper* is the work of Tino Poutianen of Flickr and it’s been built and presented to absolute perfection. See more at the link.
*You’ll have to Google these. We’re a car blog.
Minor Mechanics
Children, like TLCB Elves, are just smaller stupider humanoids. However they can be very useful, what with their little arms being able to access parts of a Land Rover Defender that Dad’s are too large for.
Seriously though, is there anything cooler than a parent teaching their kids about mechanics by letting them work on an actual car? This awesome father figure scene comes from SP Design of Flickr, who has not only built a magnificent Land Rover Defender for Dad and his two kids to work on, but a range of superbly recognisable equipment too.
Head to Dad’s garage via the link above to lend a hand. If yours are small enough of course.
Big D
Diesel has become a bit of a dirty word of late. We have Volkswagen to thank for that, but the fuel from the black pump was dirty anyway, they just got caught being particularly loathsome. However diesel is still useful, being much more suited to high-torque applications than petrol whilst producing less CO2 (the key driver behind climate change), and being more energy dense too, thereby making it more efficient.
We expect none of that thinking went into the D-Rod, a rat rod built for the ‘Welderup’ TV show from a 1920s Dodge that uses an enormous Cummins diesel truck engine because, well… why not? The result is, er… just watch this.
Fun as that looks we wouldn’t fancy breathing what comes out of the D-Rod, so this superb brick-built replica by Redfern 1950s will do us nicely instead. Red’s Model Team replica of the ‘Welderup’ D-Rod captures the look of the real car beautifully, yet it won’t give everyone standing near it lung cancer. Head to Red’s photostream via the link above for a closer look, and you can read his interview in TLCB’s Master MOCers series by clicking here.
Sci-Friday II
LEGO’s classic space themes, including… er, Classic Space, have seen a resurgence thanks to the online Lego Community. From Ice Planet to Space Police, and M-Tron to Blacktron, each has been super-sized and – much to the Elves’ delight – appears to have become considerably more violent than when LEGO were in charge of their direction a decade or two ago. However there was one classic space theme overlooked; the short-lived robot-equipped thieves of Spyrius.
Spyrius took over the role of space villainy that became vacant following Blacktron’s demise, and lasted two years from ’94 to ’96. With a couple of mighty robots, spaceships, and even a spacebase, they were well furnished by LEGO’s designers. Not as well furnished as this though!
This enormous Spyrius spacecraft is the work of spaceruner of Flickr and it’s 155 studs long. Two hangar bays house further spacecraft whilst the highly detailed and brilliantly equipped interior serves over fifty mini-figures. Interestingly these are far from being only Spyrius agents, with a range of classic spacemen represented. Either Spyrius have cleaned up their act and space has become a more collaborative and harmonious place, or spaceruner ran out of Spyrius mini-figures…
Whatever the reason it’s a properly good build and there’s much more to see, including some excellent interior shots, at spaceruner’s photostream. Take a look via the link in the text above!
Sci-Friday I
OK, this is definitely not a car, but it somehow manages to look a little bit like a vintage racer, so it’d almost be rude for us not to blog it. Edward Lawrence is the builder and there’s more to see on Flickr here.
76895 Speed Champions Ferrari F8 Tributo | Set Preview
No sooner had we written yesterday’s post previewing the awesome new 76897 Audi Sport quattro S1 set than another Elf stumbled back into TLCB Towers following its ‘adventure’ in LEGO’s HQ.
This is its find, the new 76895 Speed Champions Ferrari F8 Tributo.
The 2020 Speed Champions line-up wouldn’t be complete without a new Ferrari set, and this really is a new Ferrari set, being the Italian supercar manufacturer’s latest model which was only revealed at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year.
Like yesterday’s Audi, the new Speed Champions Ferrari F8 Tributo set applies LEGO’s new 8-wide scale to allow for a little more realism and for two mini-figures to sit side-by-side. 76895 only includes one, and interestingly it’s a racing driver despite the F8 being a road car, but you can always add a second should you wish.
The F8’s design has been well replicated in Lego form, albeit with a few stickers helping with the shape of the cockpit, and includes 275 pieces for an anticipated $20 price tag. Aimed at ages 7+ we think 76895 looks rather good and will likely continue the success of Lego’s Ferrari Speed Champions partnership, however we’d still take the Audi…
